Number of Persons in Employment

There was an annual increase in employment of 1.5% or 27,700 in the year to the third quarter of 2014, bringing total employment to 1,926,900.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, employment increased by 10,400 (+0.5%) over the previous quarter. This follows on from a seasonally adjusted increase in employment of 4,300 (+0.2%) in Q2 2014.

Number of Persons Unemployed

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased from 11.5% to 11.1% over the quarter.

Unemployment decreased by 37,400 (-13.2%) in the year to Q3 2014 bringing the total number of persons unemployed to 245,500.

The long-term unemployment rate decreased from 7.6% to 6.4% over the year to Q3 2014. Long-term unemployment accounted for 56.7% of total unemployment in Q3 2014 compared with 58.4% a year earlier and 59.5% in the third quarter of 2012.

Labour Force

The total number of persons in the labour force in the third quarter of 2014 was 2,172,400, representing a decrease of 9,700 (-0.4%) over the year. The number of persons not in the labour force in Q3 2014 was 1,423,200, an increase of 12,500 (+0.9%) over the year.